Uber faces fine of nearly $1B over automated driver suspensions
Uber faces fine of nearly $1B over automated driver suspensions
Uber 因自动停用司机账号面临近 10 亿美元罚款
The Dutch Data Protection Authority is fining Uber €825 million (around $966 million) — the second largest penalty issued so far under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, according to Reuters. 据路透社报道，荷兰数据保护局（Dutch Data Protection Authority）对 Uber 处以 8.25 亿欧元（约合 9.66 亿美元）的罚款，这是欧洲《通用数据保护条例》（GDPR）实施以来开出的第二大罚单。
The Dutch regulator was investigating complaints that Uber had deactivated driver accounts through an automated process without sufficient warning or human oversight. 荷兰监管机构此前一直在调查相关投诉，内容涉及 Uber 在没有充分警告或人工监督的情况下，通过自动化流程停用了司机账号。
In a statement, deputy chair Monique Verdier said that the company had “committed serious infringements.” “A computer should not make decisions on its own that have [such] major consequences,” Verdier said. 副主席 Monique Verdier 在一份声明中表示，该公司“犯下了严重的违规行为”。Verdier 说道：“计算机不应在没有人工干预的情况下，自行做出具有如此重大后果的决定。”
Uber, however, argued that most driver suspensions are brief, that no permanent deactivations take place without human review, and that drivers have the ability to appeal. (Dutch regulators said some drivers were permanently deactivated without human review, which Uber disputes.) 然而，Uber 反驳称，大多数司机停职时间都很短，没有经过人工审核就不会进行永久停用，且司机有权提出申诉。（荷兰监管机构则表示，部分司机在未经人工审核的情况下被永久停用，Uber 对此表示异议。）
The company said it will appeal the decision. “We strongly disagree with this decision and disproportionate fine,” an Uber spokesperson told Reuters. TechCrunch has reached out to the company for additional comment. 该公司表示将对这一决定提出上诉。一位 Uber 发言人告诉路透社：“我们强烈反对这一决定以及不成比例的罚款。”TechCrunch 已联系该公司寻求进一步评论。
Brahim Ben Ali, a former Uber driver in France, told the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant that after his account was deactivated in 2019, he collected testimonies from 170 other Uber drivers and eventually brought his complaint to the Netherlands, where Uber’s European headquarters are located. 法国前 Uber 司机 Brahim Ben Ali 告诉荷兰《人民报》（de Volkskrant），他的账号在 2019 年被停用后，他收集了其他 170 名 Uber 司机的证词，并最终将投诉提交到了 Uber 欧洲总部所在地——荷兰。
Ben Ali was assisted in this effort by a Swiss nonprofit focused on digital rights called PersonalData.io, which helped the drivers collect data about how the deactivation decisions were made. 在这一过程中，一家名为 PersonalData.io 的瑞士数字权利非营利组织为 Ben Ali 提供了协助，帮助司机们收集了关于停用决定是如何做出的相关数据。
Founder Paul-Olivier Dehaye said a driver “can complete a thousand journeys with satisfied passengers, but if just one person reports a very serious problem, the consequences can be enormous.” 该组织创始人 Paul-Olivier Dehaye 表示，一名司机“可以完成一千次行程并让乘客满意，但如果只有一个人举报了非常严重的问题，后果可能是巨大的。”
Dehaye told me that this is the third fine that the Dutch regulator has levied on Uber, following a €290 million fine over its handling of drivers’ personal data and a €10 million fine stemming from related issues. He also said he plans to start a class action suit through which drivers can seek compensation. Dehaye 告诉我，这是荷兰监管机构对 Uber 开出的第三张罚单，此前曾因其处理司机个人数据的问题罚款 2.9 亿欧元，并因相关问题罚款 1000 万欧元。他还表示，计划发起集体诉讼，让司机们能够寻求赔偿。
In fact, Dehaye said these fines all originate with complaints made by the same group of drivers. And he’s starting a new company called StartClaims to support the litigation and other regulatory action — first against Uber and then eventually expanding to other gig economy cases, as well as related areas like adtech. 事实上，Dehaye 表示，这些罚款都源于同一批司机的投诉。他正在创办一家名为 StartClaims 的新公司，以支持诉讼和其他监管行动——首先针对 Uber，最终将扩展到其他零工经济案例以及广告技术等相关领域。
While discussing the case with Dehaye (who I’ve known casually since college), I brought up a blog post by Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, in which Gruber worried that this fine makes it “unlawful in the EU for Uber to monitor its drivers for pulling scams against customers, or just never picking riders up, leaving them stranded.” 在与 Dehaye（我从大学起就认识他）讨论此案时，我提到了 Daring Fireball 网站 John Gruber 的一篇博文。Gruber 在文中担心，这笔罚款使得“Uber 在欧盟境内监控司机是否欺诈客户，或是否因拒绝接载乘客而导致其滞留的行为变得不合法”。
Gruber also took issue with Verdier’s statement, arguing, “Saying that ‘a computer’ made these decisions is like saying that when a company suspends or fires a habitually late employee, that ‘the time clock’ made the decision. Managers at the company set the policies, and the devices measure employee compliance.” Gruber 还对 Verdier 的声明提出了异议，他认为：“说‘计算机’做出了这些决定，就像说当一家公司停职或解雇一名习惯性迟到的员工时，是‘打卡钟’做出的决定一样。公司的管理者制定了政策，而设备只是衡量员工的合规性。”
Dehaye countered that Gruber “misses the point.” “Uber is free to use humans to punish drivers who scam, but then [it] has to take responsibility for this decision making (like ‘being an employer’, not ‘being a marketplace’),” he said. Dehaye 反驳称 Gruber “没抓住重点”。他说：“Uber 完全可以利用人工来惩罚欺诈的司机，但这样一来，它就必须为这种决策承担责任（就像‘作为雇主’，而不是‘作为市场平台’）。”